Santa Clara County Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
W. D. ALLISON
W. D. ALLISON, one of the prominent business men of this county, is the
proprietor of the oldest established store in San Jose, he having succeeded
Jackson Lewis, who established the business in 1849. Mr. Allison is a native of
the State of New York, having been born in Broome County in 1834, but removing
with his parents to a farm near Birmingham, Michigan, in 1836. Here he received
his education, and learned the jewelry business, working at it both in Pontiac
and in Detroit.
In 1858 he came to California by way of Panama, and immediately followed the
tide of people to the gold mines, going to Mokelumne Hill. After mining about
three months he went to work at his trade in the same town, remaining there four
years. During the Esmeralda County gold excitement he went to Aurora, where he
remained two years in the jewelry business. In 1864 he came to San Francisco,
where he formed a company for the manufacture of aerated bread, adding, after
two years, the manufacture of yeast bread. During this time six wagons were
required to deliver the bread to the customers. On the breaking out of the
small-pox in the fall of 1868, the company closed the bakery, whereupon Mr.
Allison came to San Jose, and entered the store of Jackson Lewis. In 1879 he
succeeded Mr. Lewis in the business, and has continued it to this time.
In 1875 Mr. Allison was married to Miss Mollie E. Secoy, of Chicago, whose
parents, Dr. Secoy and wife, of Chicago, died during her early infancy. Mr. and
Mrs. Allison have five children: Camille, Winfred, Mildred, Leone, and W. D.,
Jr. Mr. Allison's parents were David and Susan Allison, his father a native of
New York State and his mother of New Jersey. Both parents are dead, his father
dying in 1883, at Pontiac, Michigan, at the age of ninety-two years, his mother
in 1886. Both are buried at Troy, Michigan, near the old farm where they had
lived so long.
Mr. Allison is a member of San Jose Lodge, No. 10, F. & A. M., and of San Jose
Commandery, No. 10, of Knights Templar, also a member of Scottish Rite, and of
the I. O. O. F.
SOURCE: Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County,
California, Illustrated. - Edited by H.S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing
Company, 1888. page 384 Transcribed by Roena Wilson